Spent some time today refining the brake cabling. I got rid of the XTR cables (which are your typical silver cable which fray easily) and I fitted some sexy black teflon coated Alligator cables, cut down the lengths by over 10cm for a cleaner look and also have an exposed cable route to the rear. Here’s a before and after, massive difference I reckon, the hard work was well worth it! Also blacked out the Maxxis logos on my tyres.
Suga and I missed the Friday, but we rocked up to Semi-Permanent on Saturday, we caught a few talks, but we were there primarily to dunk a few cold beers and catch up with a few old timer designers, which we did! Ran into MWG and Ash, who had this wild Bridgestone Transit which he brought back from a trip to Japan. Carbon fibre frame, dual suspension and no chain to be found. I also had a little go at MWG’s sexy fixie, scary stuff to not have brakes, it’s definitely something else!
Also checked out the Kingsford markets today, the best junk markets and so close to home. I picked up a mint Yamaha PSS-450 programmable synth for $30, what a score!!!
This makes me drool. I think I’m losing it.
The first bike I wanted when I walked into a bike store when I was a kid was a Colnago. Expensive taste!
On the brain. One-on Mary, Jones H-Bar and On-One Midge, so many bars to try out!
Felt great, the furthest the single speed’s been from home! (I didn’t eat that shit of-course, Jing did though lol).
OK, final update on the single speed for a while. The bike’s finally semi-finished!
Avid BB7 brakes came in today. They were an absolute pleasure to install and the a2Z rear disc caliper mount worked perfectly.
I rode it around the block, it’s awesome. I do miss not having clip ins, would suit the bike a little more perhaps, will just have to try it now that I have a spare set (or 2) of clipless pedals. The steering is damn fast, almost twitchy, but I like it. Brakes aren’t working too great. I assume they need some bedding in/adjustments. Grips are a little strange, chunky, soft, but not sure if I like them or not. Still not used to working hard on a single speed, but I love it, it’s fast and simple.
A few things to do:
– Lighter wheelset to get her into the 9kg’s
– Try to remove tensioner, or at least shorten chain with half link
– Red Chris King headset
– Comfier seat, this one hurts!
– Figure out a sexier way to route rear brake cable
Well, first I find the Hardrock under my house, then I find this under Christina’s house! One mans junk is another mans treasure!!!
Mr Lock was telling me he had an old folding bike which a good friend of his had asked him to store, but never ended up shipping overseas. It was in the shed, in a bag, it’s moved from house to house and they had never opened it. Of-course I was itching to check it out, and that we did.
It’s a Bickerton! The bag was covered in mould and bits of bike were sticking out. We took the folding bike out of the bag and assembled it, took us all of 5 minutes. Funny Christina, her father, sister or mother had never seen the thing before!
It’s awesome, like an old school roadster, light, aluminium frame and alloy parts, 3 gears too. I’m really looking forward to restoring this one. A little TLC will go a long way I’m sure. Photos here.
As always, some hot cars turned up to the JDMST End Of Month Meet (EOMM). More pictures here and here.
